Malibu Inn Hotel Gets Traction At Planning Commission – Objections Raised To $12 Million PCH Project’s Lack Of Bike Lane
Written by 991KBU on September 11, 2021
Objections were raised last week on the $12 million widening of PCH shoulders in the middle of Malibu .., more on that in a minute … but first:
For the second time this year … a proposed hotel on PCH near the pier went before the Malibu Planning Commission. And a badly divided rejected requests from two commissioners to send the issue back … to the staff … to get numerous questions answered.
It appears that the Malibu Inn Motel may be on the way to a 3 to 2 approval … after a hearing Wednesday night.
Planning commissioners Kraig Hill and John Mazza had numerous questions about setbacks .. piling dirt around parking areas to make them supposedly subterranean … and waivers for grading.
And for the second time … hotel workers from Los Angeles lined up to testify against a hotel in Malibu.
Like the Sea View Hotel down the road … the proposed Malibu Inn Hotel has also triggered objections from hotel workers union members.
Like Sandra Ramirez … testifying via a Spanish language translator Wednesday night.
NEWSCART 73744 SANDRA RAMIREZ
[SPANISH THEN VOICE OF TRANSLATOR:] “The city proposes to undermine the zoning code … whether by changing it or by having a lot of variances …
“It isn’t fair to hotels or hotel workers to have special rules for all these hotels.”
Here in Malibu … reaction is mixed.
Mark Dempster is the closest neighbor .. he and his wife live across the street.
NEWSCART 73745 MARK DEMPSTER
“We are supportive of the conceptual design that we have … created by (Malibu architect Doug) Burdge.
“It seems very attractive and something that it would be nice to be a part of.”
By a 3 to 2 vote .. the Planning Commission voted to hold off on a decision on the proposed hotel … until it can get some questions answered about calculations of the actual square footage of the hotel.
But the two opponents on that … Mazza and Hill … wanted a lot more information.
One major question … in Mazza’s objections … is whether the state water board will allow the hotle to be built.
Mazza has questions if the proposed hotel will be allowed to connect to the Malibu downtown sewer system.
The proposed hotel across the street from the pier returns to the Plannign Commission on November First.
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Malibu is about to spend 12 million dollars in county road money to rebuild PCH … 40 percent of our total allotment. And we won’t even get a bike lane.
That’s the complaint from Planning Commissioner John Mazza … as plans for reconstructing Pacific Coast Highway lurched forward at the Malibu Planning Commission Wednesday night.
Mazza argues that the city is wasting its limited share of regional transit money … on a half-baked project.
The plan has been approved by Caltrans … and now by the Planning Commission. PCH there was built 74 years ago … and it was designed as an intercity expressway.
The Caltrans plan is to narrow the center median … and shift lanes towards the middle … thus making more room for bicycles and parked cars on each side.
Commissioner John Mazza argued that it was foolish to redo the road without widening it … taking out bushes and landscaping that has grown on state property. And he said that just because Caltrans has approved it … doesn’t mean the city should go along.
NEWSCART 73741 MAZZA MEDIANS
“We can amend this because we don’t have to rubber stamp everything that comes to us.
“There are two things I would like …
“I would like to have a bike lane.
“And make these medians either a foot narrower … or make the roadbed a foot or two wider. “
commissioner Kraig Hill argued it was not a good idea to make the enter median narrower.
NEWSCART 73742 HILL MEDIAN
“The premise that its safer for bicycles is sort of weak and yet we’re setting it up to make it slightly more dangerous for the head-on factor.”
Those arguments failed.
The plans move ahead.
